Pridemoore

I found this film to be rather boring, though the shower scenes livened things up a bit. A few general comments:

Linda Carol actually did a fair job in the lead role, though her lack of experience was pretty obvious. At least she was the only one who wasn't chewing the scenery. Was she really 16? Seems to me that she was a bit young to be making exploitation films like this. She certainly had the body for it, though.

Wendy O. Williams is just sad in her role. As someone who actually saw the Plasmatics play and who still has three of their vinyl LPs, I can't help but wonder where she went wrong in her career. I believe that she was 37 when this film was made, but she looks like she is in her late-40s. Totally inappropriate casting. Plus, her accent/dialect/speech mannerisms are possibly more irritating than Fran Drescher's. On the other hand, I have to give her an A- for keeping in shape like she did. It's a shame that she ended up taking her own life, but there was always that underlying impression of her that told you she had been seriously damaged during her life.

You may also think that you will get to see some of Sybil Danning's assets, but, sadly, this is not the case. In fact, unless you have a uniform fetish, Danning is about as close to gender-neutral in this movie as you can get. Even Pat Ast exhibits some sexuality in this move...but not Sybil.

Finally, I was prepared for a little more skin than the movie actually showed. Based on other comments, it sounded as if the movie was 40% shower scenes. In reality, though the "girls" are pretty skimpily clad throughout the movie, the actual nude scenes are quite brief. Now, I'm not saying that the movie would have been better or worse with more nudity, but that I expected more based on what others had written. I think you actually get more nudity in "Starship Troopers".

Overall, this was an interesting movie and I was able to watch it all the way through, so I give it ** out of *****. With a few funnier scenes, it might have made it half a star higher.

"Reform School Girls" is a deliciously exaggerated entry in the Women In Prison genre. It's all very campy material that the majority of the actors, to their credit, actually play quite straight. The winks start with the fact that its writer / director Tom DeSimone, had previously made another classic, "The Concrete Jungle". Here, DeSimone, cast, and crew clearly have a ball with the trashy 'n' flashy story. Linda Carol plays Jenny, a newcomer to a reform school named Pridemore Juvenile Facility, who mixes it up with both the overbearing head matron Edna (corpulent, big haired Pat Ast, who's an absolute riot) and swaggering top dog convict Charlie (punk rocker Wendy O. Williams, perfectly suited to the role). Also among the main cast is the B movie goddess Sybil Danning, adding to the in- joke tone of the movie seeing that she plays the ruthless warden here and had already played a convict in the earlier "Chained Heat". Ast, Williams, and Danning are a superb trio and make this fun to watch. Carol, by comparison, by playing a more or less decent person (although tough enough to try standing up to the antagonists), comes off as less entertaining. Ast delights in the over the top nature of Edna, setting a stuffed animal on fire and stomping the life out of a real one. DeSimone delivers enough shower scenes / nudity / sex, melodrama, and violence to keep fans content. The sometimes hilarious script features some choice and quotable dialogue. The soundtrack is absolutely kick ass, with Williams singing such ditties as the anthemic "It's My Life" and the title track. The supporting cast aren't slouches, either; Charlotte McGinnis is the concerned Dr. Norton, Sherri Stoner the young innocent Lisa, Denise Gordy the sassy Claudia, Laurie Schwartz the spunky Nicky, and two "Friday the 13th" franchise alumni, Tiffany Helm ("A New Beginning") and Darcy DeMoss ("Jason Lives") play Charlie's flunkies. The movie progresses agreeably through various sordid episodes before coming to a rousing conclusion. In any event, one element you have to appreciate about this sort of thing is the hotness factor of the inmates. It's not exactly boring at any moment, either. There are certainly no complaints from this viewer. Eight out of 10.

This could be the greatest t&a movie of all time. It's the ultimate 80's women-in-prison movie. It's got loads of nudity, some very sick wardens (the awesome Sybil Danning), and Wendy O. Williams spending most of the film in a g-string! This is a low-budget exploitation film that delivers the goods. There was actually some pretty good acting in the film. If only i would have owned this film when i was 12! It's a fun and cheesy movie that gives you exactly what you'd want from a women-in-prison flick. The scene where Wendy O. Williams crashes a bus is a classic. 80's cheese and squeeze.I highly recommend doing a double feature with Hollywood chainsaw hookers...that'd be a fun night.

Set in a correctional facility for young female offenders, Reform School Girls is technically a Women in Prison movie, but don't expect anything too sleazy ala the films of Jess Franco—as far as the genre goes, this mid 80s effort from seasoned trash director Tom DeSimone is one of the lighter examples, designed to be fun rather than offensive.

While it does deliver most of the standard WIP ingredients—cat-fights, communal shower scenes, bull dykes, fragile first-timers, and physical abuse—it's all done in knowingly camp fashion with tongue firmly in cheek. The big-breasted women saunter round their dorm in sexy lingerie, the nastier inmates and members of staff are grotesque caricatures, the dialogue is deliberately tasteless ('I thought I smelled fish'), and the plot is about as cheesy as it could get.

Let's face it, any film which sees a scantily clad Wendy O. Williams, lead singer of punk/rock group The Plasmatics, stood atop a speeding bus on a collision course with a sadistic, overweight, shotgun toting head matron called Edna (a memorable performance from Pat Ast) was never intended to be taken all that seriously.

I was expecting this movie to fall into the so-bad-it's-good category, but I was wrong. I found myself surprisingly engaged by the film's plot (Yes, it actually had a plot). I was expecting just a bunch of scenes that serve as poor excuses to showcase naked or scantily clad women. Mind you, there are some scenes like that, but nothing more than you would expect in a woman-in-prison movie. The actors play it straight, rarely acting like they're in a B-movie, as they seem to take their roles pretty seriously. Don't get me wrong, "Reform School Girls" is by no means a film of substance. But it's very entertaining without being too much of a guilty pleasure. Plus, the theme song (performed by Wendy O. Williams herself) is a great, catchy tune!